EVGA Nu Audio Pro Review: Who Needs a Sound Card in 2020?

Testing Equipment

Testing a sound card is the polar opposite of testing a graphics card. With a GPU it’s easy to be completely objective, but with a sound card it’s almost impossible. I could test the noise floor and confirm the SNR, but I can already tell you that the Nu Audio Pro brought zero audible noise, hissing, or pops under any circumstances. Hence, today’s results are entirely subjective and focus on the card’s ability to reproduce music. 

I let the card run in over a period of 48 hours before making any judgements. While some might consider running in to be a myth on the electronics side (on headphones and speakers it certainly isn’t, that I can tell you), it certainly can’t do any harm.

To figure out whether a sound card can benefit you as a PC user in 2020, I tested the Nu Audio Pro card with a range of equipment. I started with Sennheiser HD 598 headphones, which with an MSRP of $250 when they launched in 2011 and street prices for the newer HD 599 models often below $200, represent borderline-mainstream hardware. I also tested the sound card with a pair of ~$530 Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro cans and the popular Audioengine A2+ desktop speakers, which sell for between $220 and $260.

Lastly, to really put the Nu Audio Pro through its paces I used an audiophile-pleasing HiFi setup worth nearly $3,000 (detailed in the results below).

I used played music from the Tidal music streaming service using a HiFi subscription, which provides access to the full library in uncompressed CD-quality recordings, along with a large selection of MQA recordings. MQA is a relatively new file type. Whereas CD-quality recordings max at 16-bit 44.1 KHz in the FLAC audio recording format, MQA recordings bump the bitrate and resolution up to 24-bit and 96KHz, respectively. In practice, most would be hard-pressed to hear a difference between CD-quality and MQA, as both are of excellent quality.

Testing Results: Sennheiser HD 598 and Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro 

When I listened to Dido’s “Take You Home” on the Sennheiser HD 598 headphones, I was puzzled that there was no immediately noticeable improvement compared to the many times I’ve listened to this track without a sound card. That’s not to say that the result was bad; in fact, clarity was wonderful, and Dido’s voice sounded extremely lush on the Nu Audio Pro sound. The problem was that I also enjoyed the track just as much as when using the Aorus motherboard’s audio implementation, which also has a capable headphone amplifier, but relies on the ALC1220 DAC.

I switched to playing Imagine Dragons’ “Bad Liar,” and at first I again noticed no difference. I listened for the key things: clarity, tightness of the bass, soundstage, stereo separation, lushness of the voices, etc, but couldn’t find a difference.

Next, I grabbed a pair of Beyerdynamic DT1990 Pros and laid out cabling so that I could switch playback sources quickly for side-by-side comparison.

Using the DT 1990 Pros, I noticed more differences, most notably in the high frequencies. Music sounded cleaner and appeared to reach further up the spectrum, with the Nu Audio Pro revealing slightly more detail than the onboard audio. The voices sounded more intimate, and  when playing classical pieces I felt closer to the recordings.

The difference I noticed wasn’t huge, however. If you’re on any sort of budget, consider that for the $199 the Nu Audio Pro costs, you could just as easily step up to a better pair of headphones. The HD 598 headphones sell for $260 at the time of writing, while the DT 1990 Pros cost about $530. I found myself enjoying the DT 1990 Pro more with onboard audio than I did the HD 598 with the Nu Audio Pro.

I also did a blind test with others, and got mixed results in terms of who could hear differences when using the sound card.

So, we’re off to a rocky start but aren’t very surprised. There’s not much point in pairing a very revealing sound card with headphones that aren’t able to reproduce the detail.

Testing Results: Audioengine A2+ Desktop Speakers 

Anyone who’s shopped for a pair of stereo desktop speakers has probably looked at the Audioengine A2+ system. They might seem too small, but if you don’t want your desk filled up with larger studio monitors, these are one of the best choices, assuming you have about $220-$270 to spend. Most will use them with their internal DAC over USB, but you can also connect them to an external DAC, like the one integrated in a motherboard or our Nu Audio Pro card. 

With these speakers, the Nu Audio Pro immediately made itself the superior source over both the motherboard audio and the speakers’ internal DAC, but only by a small margin. Where with headphones I found a minute improvement in enjoyment, feeding the A2+ speakers with the Nu Audio Pro provided an unmistakable boost. As these speakers can’t reproduce much in the way of low frequencies, I can’t comment on the bass, but the Nu Audio Pro did make the the speakers sound bigger than they are. The sound was suddenly a little wider, and I felt like the speakers were further apart, creating the feeling of a bigger soundstage.

On the A2+, I could say with confidence that I heard a difference, as opposed to thinking that I did. The difference still wasn’t huge, but it was unmistakably there. Like with the headphones though, the difference was still too small to justify the sound card’s $200 price. 

Testing Results: Going Full HiFi 

To see what the Nu Audio Pro could really do, I connected it to an audio system worth fifteen times the price of the card. The Sennheiser HD 598 and Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro are great headphones, and the Audioengine A2+ speakers are also excellent by most standards, but it was worth hooking the Nu Audio Pro up to a much more revealing stereo.

The setup was a Cambridge Audio CXA81 integrated stereo amplifier ($1,299) paired with two KEF Q750 speakers ($800). I also used a quality double-shielded jack-to-RCA cable to connect the computer to the CXA81 amplifier and connected the amplifier to the speakers using 6mm², 100% oxygen-free copper cabling. I listened to this setup using the amplifier’s internal DAC to get familiar with its sound for a few weeks before plugging in the Nu Audio Pro. 

Before listening for testing, I set up two sets of identical source cabling, each to an analog input on the amplifier, connected one to the Nu Audio Pro and the other to the Realtek onboard audio. This let me switch sources very quickly. I matched the volume levels on both and queued the MQA playlist.

And then everything suddenly made sense.

The first thing that was immediately clear was the wider soundstage and stereo imaging over onboard audio. When sat at the proper listening position, the sound engulfed me much more so when played over the Nu Audio Pro card than when using the onboard ALC1220 as a DAC. On the motherboard’s ALC1220, the audio sounded more like it was coming from in front of me or  from a point source, rather than filling the room.

The sound was also fuller and sounded significantly more alive with the card than what the onboard audio provided. Voices sounded more intimately detailed, as if the singer were actually in the room rather than a recording being played back. This added level of detail was especially clear on calmer tracks, where piano music or acoustic tracks sounded much more like the instrument were being played in the room.

A busier track, such as Imagine Dragons’ “Bad Liar” really brought all these elements together. Played back in MQA off of Tidal, I relished the level of detail. The Nu Audio Pro made voices sound more alive and present, the instruments clearer and the soundstage significantly wider. The motherboard’s audio seemed to struggle when “Bad Liar” got busier, but the Nu Audio Pro kept all the instruments very clearly separated from one another, accurately placing them throughout the room across the soundstage.

The Nu Audio Pro’s effect here was so powerful that I noticed more intimacy and extremely tight control over the low frequencies when listening to Chymes’ “All Time Low” and Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over” than when listening on the HD 390 or A2+ speakers. 

Comparing the Nu Audio Pro to the Cambridge Audio CXA81’s ESS Sabre internal DAC yielded no difference in sound worth noting. It’s hard to pick one over another. But for amplifiers without an internal DAC,the Nu Audio Pro can be a great solution.

When I switched back to my motherboard’s onboard audio, I felt robbed of what my HiFi is capable of. Music no longer enveloped the room, but instead felt like it came from a flat plane in front of me. Gone was the intimacy of the voices and instruments. It still sounded great, but where the Nu Audio Pro gave a level of detail and placement that made music seem like live playback, the onboard audio sounded like a recording. The difference wasn’t earth-shattering, but with this near-$3,000 setup, the $199 price tag of the Nu Audio Pro seems like a no-brainer. If you’re someone who has this kind of setup, feeding it with a Realtek-based onboard audio solution is doing yourself a disservice.

Bottom Line

Whether a sound card is something you’ll benefit from depends on both you and your specific equipment. This is the case for EVGA’s Nu Audio Pro just as much as with any other sound card or external DAC.

With high-end gear (our setup cost nearly $3,000), the difference between using the Nu Audio Pro is like night and day. Without the right gear, you’ll be asking yourself why you spent the extra money over your motherboard’s onboard audio, which is probably pretty good.

Based on our experience, it doesn’t make sense to pair a $199 sound card with a pair of headphones or speakers that aren’t able to reveal audio’s additional details. But if you step up the sound gear to something at least approaching high-end audio, a sound card makes more sense. 

If you’re using a good pair of headphones near the $200 mark and are experiencing issues with background noise, hissing, popping, or anything that simply sounds impure, I recommend buying this sound card. Instead, check your motherboard first. There are many boards out there with great onboard audio solutions, and for probably over 90% of people, a dedicated sound card won’t provide much noticeably better results over good onboard audio implementation.

Sound cards and high-end DACs aren’t for everyone. Onboard sound on premium motherboards has come a very long way in the last decade. This doesn’t mean that there is no place for sound cards at all in 2020. It just means that there is no more need for sound cards for entry-level audio systems; the market is now focused on boosting high-end gear. 

But if you own (or aspire to own) gear in a higher price class and capable of revealing more detail, the Nu Audio Pro is definitely worth considering. Audio Note did a superb job designing the card’s circuitry and electronics, and EVGA did a fine job of manufacturing it into a PC-friendly package.